Interview 5: Colourful Language, Voice Hearing, and the Creativity of Connection
Clinical DAIS Interview Code: 12AY15
About This Interview
This interview forms part of the Clinical DAIS Corpus, a collection of lived-experience interviews exploring mental distress, recovery, identity, relationships, and everyday life.
When asked whether she uses language creatively, the participant offers an unexpected response. Rather than describing herself as creative, she suggests that she thinks "more colourfully than creatively." What follows is a thoughtful and deeply reflective discussion about hearing voices, peer support, communication, creativity, and the importance of listening.
Drawing on many years of experience both as a voice hearer and as a facilitator of a Hearing Voices group, the participant explores how language can become a practical tool for coping, connection, and mutual understanding. The interview provides a rare insight into creativity not as artistic production but as a way of responding to distress, building community, and helping people tell their stories.
Key Themes
Hearing voices and coping strategies
Creative uses of language
Peer support and community
Listening and understanding
Communication across difference
The Hearing Voices Movement
Creativity as problem-solving
Social connection and belonging
Storytelling and personal narratives
Recovery and mutual support
Interview Summary
The participant begins by explaining that she thinks of her use of language as "colourful" rather than creative. She describes living with voices for many years and explains that one way she manages them is through inventive verbal responses. Rather than repeatedly using the same language, she develops new ways of addressing or responding to the voices, finding this process both cathartic and useful.
The conversation expands into a broader discussion of creativity as a form of problem-solving. The participant describes techniques developed within Hearing Voices groups, including negotiating with voices, setting boundaries, and finding alternative ways of responding to difficult experiences. These strategies are presented not as cures but as practical tools that help some people manage distress more effectively.
A major focus of the interview is the Hearing Voices group that she has helped facilitate for more than sixteen years. She describes the group as a diverse and supportive community where members share experiences, creative projects, photographs, newsletters, artwork, baking, and conversation. Creativity emerges not as an individual pursuit but as something woven into relationships and collective life.
The participant also reflects extensively on communication itself. She discusses the challenges of listening to people who express themselves in unfamiliar or disjointed ways and the importance of being honest when understanding breaks down. Rather than assuming communication should always be smooth, she presents it as a collaborative process requiring patience, curiosity, and respect.
Throughout the interview, creativity is understood in a remarkably broad sense. It includes language, coping strategies, knitting, newsletters, photography, group activities, and the ongoing work of helping people tell their stories. The interview ultimately presents creativity as a deeply social process rooted in care, empathy, and human connection.
"More Colourfully Than Creatively"
One of the most memorable moments in the interview occurs immediately after the opening question.
Asked whether she uses language creatively, the participant responds:
"Sometimes I would think more colourfully than creatively."
This phrase becomes a gateway into a fascinating discussion about living with voices.
She explains that after many years of voice hearing, she developed a habit of inventing new ways of responding to them:
"I do find that if we use the same swear words all the time it doesn't help, so I have to be creative in finding new swear words to react to them."
Humorous on the surface, the comment points toward a much deeper process. Language becomes a coping tool, allowing the participant to respond actively rather than passively to distressing experiences.
The phrase "turning the air blue" becomes both a joke and a vivid example of how metaphor and language can transform difficult experiences.
Creativity as a Coping Strategy
As the conversation develops, the participant broadens the discussion beyond swearing and humour.
She describes creativity as an essential part of managing voice hearing:
"You have to think of new ways to get rid of them, or to put them on hold."
One example involves negotiating with voices rather than simply trying to suppress them.
She explains that some group members use an approach such as:
"Come back later at 6 PM and I'll give you ten minutes."
This strategy reflects a highly creative approach to distress. Rather than treating voices solely as symptoms to be eliminated, they become experiences that can sometimes be managed through dialogue, boundaries, and negotiation.
The participant is careful to emphasise that these approaches do not work for everyone, but they demonstrate the variety of ways people adapt to difficult experiences.
Listening to Many Different Stories
A recurring theme throughout the interview is diversity.
The participant repeatedly notes that members of her group come from very different backgrounds and communicate in very different ways.
She explains:
"We've all got our own way of communicating our stories."
For her, one of the most important aspects of facilitating a group is recognising and respecting these differences.
Rather than searching for a single correct way of telling a story, she values the uniqueness of each person's narrative and communication style.
This perspective reflects a broader philosophy of acceptance that runs throughout the interview.
The Challenge of Understanding
One of the most thoughtful parts of the conversation concerns listening.
The participant describes how some group members communicate in ways that can be difficult to follow:
"Perhaps sometimes a bit disjointed."
This creates challenges for facilitators and listeners alike.
What makes her reflections particularly insightful is her honesty about these difficulties. She admits that she sometimes worries about telling people when she does not understand them.
"I don't like saying to someone I don't understand what they're talking about."
At the same time, she recognises the importance of honesty:
"Isn't that better to be honest than rather than to nod your head and agree with something you don't know what they're talking about?"
This tension between kindness and clarity becomes one of the most compelling themes of the interview.
Creativity in the Hearing Voices Group
The participant's Hearing Voices group emerges as a powerful example of collective creativity.
Members bring a wide range of talents and interests into the group:
"A lot of our members are very talented in many different ways."
These contributions include baking, artwork, colouring, photography, newsletters, websites, and other creative projects.
One member regularly brings homemade cakes.
Another designed the group's website.
During the pandemic, a member produced a quarterly newsletter featuring photographs and contributions from others.
These activities help create an environment that feels welcoming and informal rather than clinical.
As the participant explains:
"It works."
The simplicity of this statement reflects years of practical experience.
Creativity, Concentration, and Wellbeing
The interview also explores the relationship between creativity and mental wellbeing.
The participant describes knitting as an important personal activity:
"It totally helps me to relax in the evenings."
She notes that many voice hearers struggle with concentration, making some activities difficult.
Creative projects can therefore provide an alternative focus:
"Sometimes it's easier to have a little project that you're good at."
This observation highlights the practical value of creativity. Rather than serving purely artistic goals, creative activities can support concentration, relaxation, confidence, and emotional wellbeing.
Sixteen Years of Peer Support
One of the most inspiring sections of the interview concerns the history of the participant's Hearing Voices group.
Following the closure of a psychiatric hospital where she had once been a patient, she and another voice hearer decided to create a peer support group.
After receiving specialist Hearing Voices facilitation training, they established what would become a long-running community resource.
More than sixteen years later, the group remains active.
The participant describes outings, meals, boat trips, bowling, and countless shared experiences that extend beyond formal support sessions.
What emerges is a picture of community rather than treatment.
The group provides friendship, belonging, and opportunities for people who might otherwise experience significant social isolation.
Reflections
Although this interview begins with a discussion of language, it ultimately becomes a reflection on connection.
The participant describes creativity not as artistic genius but as a practical, everyday resource. Creativity appears in the invention of new coping strategies, the adaptation of communication styles, the production of newsletters, the sharing of cakes, and the willingness to listen carefully to another person's story.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the interview is its generosity. The participant consistently focuses on helping others express themselves, find support, and feel understood.
In doing so, she presents creativity as something fundamentally relational. It is not simply about producing things. It is about finding new ways to communicate, cope, connect, and care for one another.
About the Clinical DAIS Corpus
The Clinical DAIS Corpus is an archive of lived-experience interviews exploring mental distress, recovery, identity, relationships, and everyday life.
Related Resources
Download the complete Clinical DAIS Corpus
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Citation
Clinical DAIS Corpus. Interview 5 (12AY15). Colourful Language, Voice Hearing, and the Creativity of Connection.
